Freezing Bonds that Tie our Hearts (Blood and Water #2)

10. Nova

Ikissed Aiden Walker.

And I loved every second of it.

I didn’t know what that made me, a hypocrite? Maybe. A horny teenager with the tiniest crush on a guy she spent the last three years thinking was a bully? Even more likely.

To be quite honest, I still wasn’t convinced that he was not a bully. Zainab kept on telling me I might not know the whole story and that if Aiden truly was mean then there would’ve been other incidents like the one with Sebastian years ago… but I don’t know. Maybe a part of me clung onto this idea because it helped me stay away from him. I could admit that I was attracted to Aiden… at least, I could admit it to myself. If he was a bully, then staying away from him, not giving in to that attraction I felt, was easier.

In a way, he scared me a little. Not because I thought he was capable of hurting me physically, but because whenever I was near him, I found myself feeling things that I usually didn’t allow myself to feel.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Rory’s voice broke the spell, making me look down at her.

We were both sprawled on my bed, Cece long asleep between us. She fell into a food coma after eating more ice cream than she probably should have. Her soft snores were drowned out by the movie playing on my TV which I had totally forgotten we were watching, to be truthful.

Tomorrow was Monday and we’d have to get back to school where I would no doubt see Aiden again.

“I kissed a boy.” The words flew from my mouth before I could stop them. It had been eating at me all weekend and I just couldn’t get the moment out of my head.

I even had a dream about it yesterday. I was back in Aiden’s room but this time, my phone didn’t ring and we didn’t stop at kissing. I woke up drenched and I’m not talking about sweat.

Rory’s eyes widened and she immediately sat up so I followed, biting my lip like I was about to admit to something shameful.

“Spill.”

“So, you know I went to study with Mei yesterday, right?” She nodded, “Well, I might have lied about this a little bit.”

“Nova!” She whispered-yelled

“I know, I know!”

“You at least should’ve told me! What if he was some kind of sociopath who wanted to kill you?”

“I’m sorry, okay? But for my defense, Zee knew we were assigned this work together so it would have been safe either way.”

That seemed to pacify her a little and she pursed her lips at me until, eventually, the smile got too hard to contain.

“So, you kissed him? Who are you and what did you do to my sister?”

I hid my face in my hands and groaned, “To be honest, I don’t even know what got into me.”

“Who is he? Do I know him? Oh my God, don’t tell me it’s one of those preppy guys you went out with last year?”

“No.” I deadpanned, “He’s as far as I’ll get from a preppy guy.”

“Ooh, I like him already. Tell me more.” She grasped a handful of popcorn and stuffed it in her mouth.

“He’s from the north, lives a couple houses down from Meileen, actually. I— we’re not friends or anything, quite the opposite really. He just— he gets on my nerves so much, Rory.”

“I hate that it’s true but unfortunately, in our society, boys are conditioned to think that picking on girls is an acceptable way to show they like them.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing she was right.

“What is he like?” She stuffed another handful of popcorn in her mouth and I couldn’t help but smile in amusement.

“Well, he’s smart. Pretty artistic, too. He draws and has tattoos.”

“Uh— dad is gonna hate that.”

“Dad is never gonna know, you little insect, because I am never bringing this up again. I can bet he’ll act like nothing happened tomorrow.”

“Do you want him to act like nothing happened?”

That actually gave me pause. I looked away, frowning and imagining what that would be like. Did I want Aiden to give me the cold shoulder and act like nothing happened? Not really. But on the other hand, I didn’t want to talk about it either. It would be awkward and uncomfortable and useless anyways.

So what if we kissed? Everyone had their weak moments. It didn’t have to mean anything.

“I don’t think I do.” I admitted half-heartedly. “To be honest, working with him has been pretty cool so far. He’s easy to be around, funny… I think we could be friends.”

A wolfish grin split her face as she whispered in a singing voice…“Friends who kiiiiisss…”

I grabbed a pillow and whacked her across the face with it. Maybe I did it a little too hard.

“Ow! Nova, what the hell!”

“You were too loud!”

“No I wasn’t, I whispered! See, that’s the problem with you, we’re joking around and then all of a sudden you break my nose, you freaking brute.”

“Shhh stop yelling, I didn’t break your nose, you liar!”

“You’re gonna wake Cece up!”

“If someone’s gonna wake her up, it’s your constant complaining! I was playing around, Aurora!”

“I was playing around, Aurora.” She mocked me in an annoying voice.

I clamped my mouth shut, keeping myself from saying anything because the last thing I needed was our little sister waking up crying because we were fighting. We both fell back onto our respective pillows, staring at the ceiling. None of us said anything for the longest time but I knew she wasn’t sleeping.

Suddenly, Rory’s light laughter echoed around the room and as hard as I tried not to, I joined her.

Sisterhood worked in strange ways, sometimes there were no words needed. My sister was my best friend, and even when I was angry with her, I wasn’t.

***

The next day, I went to class early and alone after dropping Rory off at her school. She had a project presentation due today and wanted to meet up with her friend to go over it again before class. I sat in my car silently and took my phone out, opening social media

I scrolled aimlessly for a few minutes before giving in and hitting the search bar, typing in the name of the guy I had spent the whole weekend thinking about.

Aiden’s Instagram was pretty simple, the only thing in his bio was his name and he only had three posts up: two pictures of cars and one of his tattoos. I clicked on that one. Sue me for being a horndog, I don’t care.

He had tattoos all over his arm but they were all pretty distinct, like a sketchbook instead of the usual sleeves people got with designs all fused together. The ones that mostly held my attention were the open book, an eye with the orb melting, a candle, and a bandana. He had little stars drawn all over the blank spaces to fill in the gaps.

A knock on my window made me jump, the phone dropping on the floor between my feet. My eyes flew to where the sound came from and all the air left my lungs when I saw who stood right outside my car.

Aiden.

And he had clearly seen the screen of my phone if the satisfied smirk on his face was anything to go by.

I immediately dove down, meaning to pick up my phone but seemed to have forgotten there was a freaking steering wheel right in front of me so I bumped my forehead on it hard, causing the honk to go off. The situation was honestly comical, or it would’ve been if it didn’t hurt like a—

My door opened and hands clutched my jaw while my own applied some pressure on my forehead— God, I hoped this wouldn’t bruise.

“Shit, little star, why so clumsy?”

“You scared me.” I groaned while he inspected my face, thick fingers rubbing over my skin.

He chuckled, “Yeah, I could tell. What are you doing here so early?”

“Had to take my sister to school a little early so I figured I’d come here and do some research in the library.”

“Sure seemed like you were researching, alright. Not sure the library has the answers you were looking for, though.”

The mischief in his voice matched the twinkle in his eyes and I didn’t even bother denying it, I simply looked away, feeling the warmth of embarrassment spread all over my face.

“I don’t think you hit your head hard enough to bruise, so you should be good.” He caressed my forehead one last time with his thumb and took a step back, “Since I’m here, let’s do that research together. The library one.” He smirked and offered his hand which I hesitated to take for a second.

Eventually, the urge to feel his skin on mine was stronger and I took it. He pulled me out of the car while I clutched my bag and closed the door for me, waiting for me to lock it before he started walking towards the school. Still holding my hand.

It felt so natural, touching him, letting him lead me, that I didn’t even realize it when we stopped in front of the doors to the library. He opened one and let me walk in first. That seemed to break the spell and I pulled my hand away from his, still feeling a little flushed. We quietly made our way to the back of the huge room, it was empty, with the exception of Mrs Gonzalez sitting at her desk, since classes started in half an hour.

Aiden sat down and I joined him, getting my laptop out of my bag, knowing we’d both have to use it since he never brought his to school. For some reason, my fingers were shaking lightly, sitting so close to him, smelling the delicious smell of musk and leather had me on edge. I was instantly brought back to this weekend in his room. The feel of his lips on mine, his hands gripping my waist tightly, heat traveled down my neck and all the way to the middle of my—

“Are you okay?” His rough voice snapped me out of my misery, but when I turned my head towards him it suddenly hit me how close we were sitting.

An almost silent gasp left my lips and my eyes immediately zoomed in on his mouth. Pink, plump, soft mouth. The urge to kiss him hit me again, hard in the chest.

“I’m fine.” I whispered, my eyes moving up to his and unable to look away.

“You look uncomfortable.”

“I’m not.”

He didn’t look convinced and frowned at me, “Is it because of what happened on Saturday?”

I couldn’t answer, the words were somehow stuck inside my throat, but I noticed his jaw was set at my silence.

“There’s no need to be uncomfortable, Nova. I’m sorry if that’s how I made you feel, it was never my intention.” He looked away and withdrew from me too, but I could sense the disappointment oozing from him.

My heart squeezed painfully at that, I didn’t want him to think he was making me uncomfortable, especially since it was actually the opposite. Before I even knew what I was doing, my hand sprung out and clutched his forearm.

“It’s not that. I loved what we did in your room, Aiden.”

The words left my mouth before I could think them through, he seemed surprised but hid it almost instantly, a smirk stretching the corner of his lips.

“You did?”

“Yeah.” I whispered

“Then why are you acting all shy?”

“Because I— I don’t want it to complicate things.”

That gave him pause.

“There’s no reason why it would. People kiss all the time, doesn’t mean we gotta be in love or something. It was a good kiss, but trust me, little star, once was enough.”

His words brought intense but unjustified hurt to my heart. Rationally, I knew he was right. It was just a kiss. But the fact that he said once was enough for him made me feel stupid.

Because once was definitely not enough for me.

“Agreed.” I answered through gritted teeth, a fake smile on my face.

He didn’t try to push but the slight flinch he let through didn’t go unnoticed by me. We both worked in tense silence for a while and when the bell rang, both of us startled, like we had been so sucked into our own brains that we forgot about our surroundings.

With one last look, I gathered my things and hightailed it outside of the library, not sparing him another glance.

***

Of all days, today had to be the one where, no matter what I did or where I went, I just couldn’t seem to escape Aiden. Whenever I entered a room, his gaze found mine, scrutinizing my every move and glaring for some reason. Glaring! The nerve on that boy.

Even my friends seemed to realize something was going on. Jelena commented about how you could quite literally cut the tension with a knife and Mei asked if something had happened between us this weekend. Only Zainab knew about our kiss and, bless her soul, she changed the subject every time one of our friends started to get suspicious.

She had also made it her mission to glare at him with all her might whenever he was near like right now. Sitting in honors English, I did my best to act like I couldn’t feel his eyes on me, but she didn’t bother. Her gaze was trained on him and if looks could kill, Aiden would be six feet under.

“He’s so fixated on you he doesn’t even see me glaring at him,” she whispered, “I’m wasting my glares on this asshole. He does not deserve them.”

Eventually, curiosity got the best of me and I turned my head in his direction, my eyes immediately sinking into his deep green orbs. I loved his eyes. It was the first thing I noticed about him, the first thing that made him nearly irresistible.

And I knew I wasn’t the only one to think it. Despite the fact that he was a Northie, Aiden made every girl in school salivate. Most Southies had a harder time admitting it, but the eyes never lie, and theirs take him in unashamedly whenever he’s near. A sudden thought that I wasn’t too far off either made me pause. What really made me different from all these other Southie girlies, objectifying him from afar?

The bell ringing got me out of my misery and the intense staring contest Aiden had roped me in against my will. I broke the stare and got up to start gathering my things, well aware of his eyes on me. Burning me.

My hands shook a little for some reason, and when Zainab put her hand on my shoulder, I jumped, earning me a weird look from her.

“Calm down bitch, it’s just me.” She chuckled, “I’m running to the library before it closes, I forgot my book there. See you in the car.”

She didn’t give me any time to nod or acknowledge her in any way because she was already out with the rest of our class. Zee hated driving with a passion, much to her dad’s dismay. He loved cars and had been trying to teach her how to drive since she was fifteen but after smashing into a tree on her first try, she promised herself she’d never try again.

I wished I would have called after her, telling her to wait for me so that I could escape being alone with the guy next to me but she was surprisingly fast for someone so short.

Sighing, I tried hightailing it out too but Aiden was close by and somehow my arm ended up brushing against his. I held in a breath, looking up at him as tension filled the room. Once we arrived at the door, both of us tried to walk out at the same time which, given the narrow frame, obviously failed, our bodies brushing together again.

I felt out of breath, like I was so close to exploding and I didn’t even know why.

Stubbornness had the best of me and I just had to get out of this room first. I had to. So I pushed him with my shoulder, hoping it would give me enough room to wiggle out, but that was forgetting how strong Aiden was. He wasn’t buff by any means and although you could clearly tell he worked out, he was more on the leaner side, only with wide shoulders.

He obviously didn’t take kindly to me trying to one-up him and grabbed my waist, ready to push me back and get ahead of me. I managed to evade him by knocking my elbow into his ribs and the little out of breath sound he made had me smirking.

That’s what allowed me to step outside the classroom first. Maybe it was a little disloyal, maybe it wasn’t fair play, the truth was: I didn’t care.

I was thinking just that when strong hands once again latched onto my waist, grabbing me firmly and pushing me into the closet right next to the class we’d been in. I gasped in surprise but that sound was swallowed down by the feel of his lips over mine. I became mindless right then, nothing else mattered but his mouth on mine, his taste on my tongue and his hands bringing my body flush with his.

“You thought you could escape me, little star?” He whispered against my lips. “I lied earlier. One taste was not enough. It will never be enough.”

With that, his lips went back to mine, taking them in a possessive and mind-blowing kiss.

It was chaotic and angry, this kiss. And it tasted like freedom.

I whimpered, my own hands grasping his shirt in desperation. My mind was split between wanting him closer or wanting to push him away. Eventually, the curious girl in me won as I clawed at his chest through his shirt. I wanted it off, I wanted it to disappear and let me fully enjoy the feel of his smooth skin against my own.

“Aiden, please.” His lips left mine and he trailed a path of kisses down to my neck.

“Please what?” He teased.

Even I didn’t know the answer to that question; all I did know was that I wanted him all over me, that I didn’t want this to end.

Aiden’s hands had left my waist to make their way down and grab my ass, the short skirt I loved to wear making it even easier for him. I loved how rough and strong his skin felt on mine.

Before I could understand what was happening he pulled me up and my back hit the wall, my legs wrapping around his waist. This position made it so easy for his erection to rub against me. A moan was ripped from my throat, the sensation unfamiliar but so freaking good. His eyes found mine and somehow, I just knew he was feeling the same.

His tongue licked playfully at my lower lip, and I opened my mouth, granting him access. We kissed for what felt like hours while I ground myself on him and I could feel something hot grow in my stomach. But that wasn’t enough. Not for him, and not for me.

“Y-your finger.” I managed, not ashamed to beg for it, not at the moment at least. I knew as soon as the moment was over, mortification would slam into me for the way I was behaving, but I couldn’t care less at the moment.

“Where?”

“In me. In my pussy. Please, I need it.” Throwing my head back, I couldn’t hold in the gasp that left my throat when finally, finally, his thumb pressed against my aching clit through the wet spot on my panties.

“Always so fucking polite, little star.”

I moaned, grabbing his head and smashing our lips together again. This kiss was nothing like the one we shared in his room. That one had been soft and curious, like we were both content to simply discover each other.

This kiss though? This one was rough, hungry, like we’d both die if we didn’t get enough of it. We spent all day avoiding and dancing around each other and that only fueled the tension, making it grow until it eventually blew up.

“You’re such a little slut for me, aren’t you?”

I moaned at his words, my panties were already wet but if he started calling me that, I was afraid it would start dripping down my thighs.

“Everyone looks at you and sees a nice, good girl, but that’s not all you are, is it?” Unable to form a sentence, I simply shook my head while he continued rubbing my clit through the panties, putting pressure on it and driving me mad with desire.

“Yeah, you’re a dirty little slut, letting me rub that little clit in the janitor’s closet while everybody else is getting home.” He bit my neck and a tremor shook the inside of my thighs. I was so close, wetness seeping through the fabric of my panties, soaking his thumb.

“Say it.” He growled, “Say you’re a little slut.”

I gasped at the crassness of his words, equally appalled and turned on by the effect they had on me. I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth, admitting it aloud seemed so bad, so dirty…

Aiden pinched my clit and I yelped. I could feel the climax on the verge of washing over me, I just needed a little bit more.

“Fucking say it, Nova. Say you’re my little slut, driving me fucking crazy all day, with those short skirts and your big eyes. Looking at me when you think I can’t see you. But I do. I always see you.”

“You’re right!” I cried, hiding my face in his neck while his thumb kept on working my clit. “I-I’m a little slut.”

I never would’ve thought these words coming out of my mouth would make me feel so free and dirty and sexy at the same time, but they did. The sensation was exhilarating.

“Only for me.” He gritted, pinching my clit again and rolling it between two fingers. “My fucking slut.”

“Y-yours! Your little slut.”

“Good girl.”

Still pinching my clit, he let his middle finger trace the shape of my lips against the damp cotton and thrust it inside me as far as it would go through the fabric while simultaneously biting my neck, driving me over the edge and making me come harder than I ever had.

I clamped my thighs around his waist and my nails in his shoulders, probably hard enough to draw blood. My head thrown back in undeniable pleasure, Aiden never stopped rubbing my clit throughout the orgasm, which seemed to make it last longer.

“Too sensitive.” I whispered, trying my best to catch my breath. He stopped but peppered kisses all over my neck instead, patiently waiting for me to come down.

I couldn’t deny it anymore. I wanted Aiden Walker in a way that was visceral. I’d never felt so attracted to anyone before, never felt the need to touch them or have them touch me like I did with him. It scared me, but at the same time… I was curious about where this could go.

Once my breath got back to normal, he let me down, slowly, our bodies rubbing against one another until my feet finally hit the ground. My legs still felt wobbly from the orgasm but I could stand.

Aiden pushed a braid away from my face, tucking it behind my ear before pressing a kiss to my lips while cupping my cheek.

“Tomorrow, before class starts, meet me at the library.” His voice was raw and strained, I could still feel his erection rubbing against my stomach.

“What?”

“Tomorrow, little star.”

He kissed me again and I closed my eyes, ready to savor the feeling of his lips on mine, but before I could, he was gone. He slipped away from the small closet and left me standing there with wet panties, wobbly legs and a heart that beat so fast I thought they might be hearing it in Texas.

A small smile stretched my lips at the prospect of meeting him tomorrow at the library, though. And when I got home that night, after carefully dodging Zainab’s questions about why I looked so flushed and what had taken me so long, I went to bed early, giddy for the next day to come.

Only when it did, and I showed up to school half an hour early, he wasn’t there.

Aiden didn’t show at all that day.